Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 33

The influence of ancient Greece on Western Civilization is evident everywhere. Walk down just about any street and see the Greek influence in architecture, especially in government buildings. Participate in an election, or witness a trial, where attorneys appeal to the laws of the land before judges and juries sworn to consider the evidence in light of reasoned laws passed by the citizens for the good of the community as a whole. Consider the advances in modern science, whether space exploration or the latest advances in medicine, all possible, because the Greeks established the supremacy of human reason over mysticism, religion, custom, and accepted authority.

The elevation of the individual as a reasoning being who could understand nature and human society, and thereby improve both society and the individual is perhaps the greatest achievement of the Greeks. People could create an organized society in which the people governed themselves. It was possible, they believed, to improve both society and the individual through education, the disciplined pursuit of excellence (arête, virtue). They did not see the individual as innately good in the sense that there was no dark side to human nature. Rather, by the creation of laws and public institutions, accepted moral norms, and the building of character, the flaws in human nature could be held in check.

The Greek contribution to Western Civilization can be summed up thus: “Whatever we experience in our day, whatever we set out to find, we see that the Greeks have been there before us, and we meet them on their way back” (Cahill 2003, p. 264).